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Bizarre insect image leaves the internet puzzled

Bizarre insect image leaves the internet puzzled

Source: metro.co.uk

Date: 08-11-2017 Time: 04:11:10:pm

A surreal photo posted online of a moustache-wearing insect has left the internet perplexed. Commenters struggled to make sense of the bizarre close-up after the image, taken by leading scanning electron microscopist Steve Gschmeissner, was posted to Reddit this week.

The picture is actually of a mosquito’s foot at 800x magnification. Gschmeissner told Live Science: ‘Insects are fantastic for that because they have all this sort of fine microscopic details. ‘When you first put something in a microscope, you are never really sure what you’re going to see.’

The photo was part of the 2016 Royal Photography Society International Images for Science contest, but didn’t win. Gschmeissner continued: ‘I’m lucky that I do something I love.

‘When you first put something in a microscope, you are never really sure what you’re going to see. You still see things you don’t expect to see.’

The image show the hairy pads and small hooks along the mosquito’s tarsus that allows them to lock on to skin.

One confused Redditor wrote: ‘I actually thought that this was an elaborate pasta sculpture at first glance.’ While another one said: ‘Sweet moustache I might add.’